


Sacrificium

by xwannaflyx



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Feral Behavior, Naruto is cursed, sort of werewolf curse, tenten with gray-ish morality, the typical angst of curses and magic and true love i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 03:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19715527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xwannaflyx/pseuds/xwannaflyx
Summary: In which Naruto is sort of cursed but still super loves Hinata and Hinata also super loves him back and Tenten has very flexible morality and would like all this to end with minimum casualties and a distinct lack of angry-at-her Neji.





	Sacrificium

**Author's Note:**

> For Naruto Magic Week Day 6 Prompt: Cursed Marks  
> it's a little late and a little too fast paced and a lot of a mess but here it is
> 
> check end note for warning please

The first day that Naruto told her about his curse, she blinked in surprise. His face was buried in her stomach, almost boneless in her lap after they had watched a movie together and settled for a cuddle. “Oh,” she said softly, her mind suddenly jumping to the memory of the strange rippling black sigils crawling and oily against the tan skin of Naruto’s stomach. “Oh,” she said a little softer, remembering the frantic way he had scrambled away, his skin flushing red and his eyes rust-red. 

There was a long silence as she continued to pet his hair, willing to move on in the conversation. “Hina,” Naruto said tentatively, raising his head from where he had buried to let one crystal blue eyes peer out at her. “You’re okay with it?” he asked hesitantly, a strangely fragile look in his eyes. 

Startled, she stared down at him. Slowly she cocked her head, a little confused about the question. “What is there to not be okay with?” she asked, trying to replay the discussion they had just had. There’s a moment of stillness, a strange frozen shock on Naruto’s face that spoke of hurts not yet healed. “Naruto?” she asked reaching for his cheek.

In a sudden blur of movement, Naruto tackled her down on the couch before peppering her face with affectionate, playful kisses. “You’re the best, Hinata!” he announced cheerfully, smacking one last kiss on her forehead. 

Giggling, Hinata dragged him into a lopsided hug, the two of them flopping down on the cushions. “Of course,” she said playfully, brushing her lips against his cheek. Naruto almost purred at the affection, settling deeper. 

Hinata gently began dragging her fingers through Naruto’s always messy hair. She remembered when she told Naruto what her family’s eyes represented. When people were being kind, they called the Hyuuga blessed; when they were being particularly bitter, the entire Hyuuga clan was thought to be cursed. She drew Naruto in for a tighter hug, a little touched when he didn’t even hesitate to relax into her hold. Some measly curse mark was never going to scare her away. 

-x-

Apparently Tenten disagreed. 

“If you’re ever in a situation where you need to make the call,” Tenten said slowly. Her eyes glint strangely in the moonlight, something dangerous and foreign in her gaze. “If you ever need to make the call, I want you to have the option.”

Hinata let out an awkward laugh, trying to pull away from Tenten’s almost desperate grip. “Tenten, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said uneasily. She knew that Tenten would never hurt her. She knew that Tenten stared at Neji with something soft and gentle in her gaze. She looked her gently too; sometimes she would look at Hinata with a similar gentle fondness and protective rage. “Tenten,” she urged, trying to pull away.

She stilled at the sheathed blade that is placed into her hand. “Hinata,” Tenten said slowly, something already gently placating in her voice. 

“Tenten, what is this,” she snapped, yanking herself away and not looking down at the dagger that had fallen to the ground. She had felt the tingle of danger in its magic. She felt the way it tried to slip through her defenses even through the protective sheath. 

“It’s a safety precaution.” Tenten’s expression is almost earnest in its urgency. “Hinata, I’m not saying that Naruto would ever hurt you.”

“He would never,” Hinata almost snarled, recoiling from the dagger and Tenten. “Naruto would never hurt me! Hurt anyone!”

“ _ I know _ ,” Tenten snapped, taking an angry step closer. Hinata barely managed to stop herself from flinching. “I  _ know  _ he would never hurt anyone willingly, Hinata,” Tenten said, finally gentling. “But I also know that a curse is a curse for a reason and if he has one then someone  _ someone  _ put that curse  _ on him _ , Hinata.” Hinata froze, staring at the way Tenten’s eyes had bled gold. The gold of metal and sunlight. Gold of greed and shining promise. Gold very  _ very  _ unlike her normally warm brown eyes. 

“Tenten...?” Hinata asked hesitantly, looking at the way Tenten’s eyes were slowly brightening from warm brown to golden brown to shining metallic.

Tenten immediately withdrew, drawing in a slow breath. “Sorry,” she said slowly. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” she finally admitted, offering Hinata a weak smile. 

“I know,” Hinata agreed hesitantly, watching the eyes slowly return honey brown. 

Tenten took in a slow breath again but the urgency in her eyes remained. “Curses are dangerous things, Hinata,” she said slowly, crouching to pick up the dagger and place it back in her hand. “I just don’t want you to be defenseless when that moment comes. And I know Naruto wouldn’t either.”

Hinata finally hesitated at those words. She knew how much Neji and Naruto worried about her. She knew the meaning of the tremble of Naruto’s hand moments before he would grasp her hand. The stark sadness of his eyes when his hands were curled into claws. “I couldn’t hurt him,” she whispered, feeling herself capitulate to the plea in Tenten’s eyes and almost hating herself for it. 

Tenten’s shoulders lost their tension. “You won’t,” she agreed quickly, pressing the dagger deeper into her grip. Hinata shuddered at the strange lightning of its magic, the way it seemed to coil around like it was testing her, tasting her. “I forged it myself. It will never cause harm that you didn’t intend in your hands.” Tenten finally smiled since this conversation began and Hinata once again saw the girl that Neji had hesitantly introduced to her in the sparkling of her eyes and softening stance. “It will only come when needed and it won’t betray its owner.”

“You forged it?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

Tenten’s eyes sharpened but she seemed to relent as she smiled again. “Yes. Neji told me I needed a hobby.”

Hinata couldn’t help the unladylike snort that bubbled out, “Tenten he meant one that didn’t involve  _ more  _ weapons,” she pointed out with a little giggle. 

Tenten shrugged, the glitter of her smile entirely unapologetic. “He should have been more specific,” she said easily. Hinata tried to ignore the darkened stare Tenten directed at dagger as she shoved it into her bag and tried to put it out of her mind. “After all, details matter.”

-x-

“What is it like?” Hinata asked one day as she cradled Naruto’s trembling form to her chest. She shoved down the helpless anger at Naruto’s pain. A part of her, a part she very much tried to ignore most days, howled for vengeance, for someone to take out Naruto’s pain on. But there was never any answer. “When the curse is in effect?” she asked gently, trying to fill her hands and voice with whatever soothing magic that she was capable of.

“Like back seat driving,” Naruto joked weakly, offering her a glint of his fang before promptly burying his face again. “I’m screaming at myself but nothing moves the way I want,” he whispered finally after a long moment of silence and avoided eye contact. “It feels like being exposed,” Naruto added, the words whispered like a guilty confession. 

Hinata gave Naruto her best attempt at a full bodied hug, trying to pass on whatever peace and comfort she was capable of mustering. Everyone always distrusted Hyuugas for being able to see everything. In that moment, she viscerally wished that such rumors were true. She wished that she could see everything so that she could find who gave Naruto the curse and tear them apart, make them feel double the pain that Naruto had suffered. But wishes were simply wishes and they did nothing so she simply drew him nearer and quietly sang songs of peace and healing, of happiness and comfort until his trembling would ease. 

She would never allow anyone to hurt him. Never. Not even herself. 

-x-

One of the realities of being herself alongside dating a certain someone was the absurd number of threats that were given. Hinata suppressed the clawing terror in her throat as several thugs forced Naruto around, even as the swirl of his curse mark became darker. Some part of her that wasn’t terrified and wasn’t furious reminded her to not tell Tenten that she had been right. 

“You’re not getting away with this,” she spat at the unknown man standing next to her, his eyes gleaming black with foreign magic and malice. She internally winced at the cliched words but maintained an iron facade. 

“Either  _ that _ ,” the monster in human skin gestured vaguely to Naruto who screamed and writhed on the ground, “will kill you or you kill it. Either way, I'm going to be pretty entertained.”

Hinata had never felt such rage in her life. She wished her emotions held the power to explode out of her, to cause the harm and violence she felt boiling in her gaze. She finally tore her, undoubtedly, glowing pale eyes away from the man to stare at Naruto. His magic coiled around him in a frenzy, hissing out sparks and and twisting. She watched the oily coils of the curse crawl closer and closer to the center of him, the part of him that was curled tightly in his chest. The part of him that she had sworn, from the first moment that he had offered her that bashful smile with a flash of fang, to protect. “You forget that there is a third option.”

“Oh?” the man asked carelessly, his gaze locked on Naruto’s screaming form. There was something avaricious and disconcertingly hungry in his eyes. “Really.” He finally turned his gaze away to fix the strangely dead eyes on her. For once they almost seemed alive, lit with glee and indolent in his self-satisfaction and victory. 

She turned away from him. If this was to be her last moment, he really was  _ not  _ the last thing she wanted to see. She faced Naruto as the screaming faded into growls and more animal-like sounds. She sensed more than saw the man step away and out of range with a laugh. Hinata faced Naruto, her Naruto, whose body was contorted and muscles and bones shifting with painful sounding cracks. 

“Darling,” she said softly, tasting the word on her tongue. Naruto shook his head, a strangled howl clawing its way out of his throat. No. That word didn’t feel right. 

“Naruto,” she whispered, feeling his name leave her lips and tasting the magic that coated the air. Some of it was the malevolent mass centered on Naruto; some of it was her own, trailing through the air and finding possibilities. 

I remember everything, Naruto had confessed once, the words twisted and accustory, something bleak and frightened in his normally bright eyes. Like someone else is in control but I remember all of it and it is by my hands. 

“Beloved,” she finally tried and she knew the word was correct by the way his head snapped up. “Beloved,” she named again, staring into one blood red eye and one bright blue one. “Beloved,” she said for the third time, hearing faint echoes of her teacher lecturing her on the power of threes. She smiled gently as the blue slowly faded into red and the contorted form stood. 

Naruto towered over her like this, his jaw distended and fangs wickedly sharp. His fur was patchy and the color of old blood and somewhere deep inside her Hinata felt herself ache at the old scars criss-crossing his pelt. Naruto snarled, his eyes gleaming dangerously and lips peeling back to reveal a terribly sharp maw. 

“I love you,” she said quietly, still maintaining eye contact. She felt the wash of her magic in the declaration. Felt the weight of a gift given long ago suddenly resting too heavy in her hand. “I love you,” she repeated, ignoring the jeering and laughter behind her. 

Naruto took a step toward her, his paws huge and claws sharp. She remembered the feel of his hands on her waist as he playfully dropped kissing on her face against her fake protests. She remembered how careful he always was when he held her and the almost reverent softness of his features. 

“I’m sorry,” she finally said, allowing the words to slip out like a declaration, like a confession of words that she should have said before. The weight in her hand suddenly seemed a part of her, and an all too natural feeling shift of her fingers was all it took for the dagger to be unsheathed and in her hand. 

The sounds from outside reached a fever pitch. 

Her neck parted like butter under the blade. The last she heard was howling. 

-x-

Naruto was still to enraged to even hesitate to leap for Tenten’s throat when she threw herself at Hinata’s still, bleeding form. He would have succeeded if Neji didn’t meet him in challenge, his eyes glowing with an otherworldly light and lips fixed in a snarl. The split second of hesitation is enough for Neji to slam him into the ground and pin him there. 

“You gave it to her,” Naruto snarled, the words spit through still fanged teeth and a too wide jaw. His form was a strange and twisted amalgamation of something vaguely canine and Naruto himself. “You gave it to her and she just—” he cut himself off and trailed off into a gut-wrenching howl, his features slipping more canine and less human. 

“She obviously wasn’t supposed to stab herself,” Tenten said, voice matter-of-fact even as her hands fluttered frantically over Hinata’s still form. “I was hoping she would stab  _ you _ .”

“I wish she had,” Naruto screamed back, the words an anguished accusation. “I would have died for her without hesitation!” he shouted, his form slowly melting human in his grief. 

“Men,” Tenten complained, taking the dagger from Hinata’s lax hands and flipping it carefully in her own. She inspected the blood decorating its sharp edge with discerning eye. “Always thinking death is the answer,” she complained, turning her gaze on Naruto’s straining form. She sighed before briefly rubbing her temple then straightening her shoulders. “Freely given,” she suddenly said, her eyes flashing gold before she almost carelessly threw the dagger, landing it, pinpoint perfect, in the middle of the curse mark etched in Naruto’s stomach. 

With a strangled wheeze, Naruto crumpled in Neji’s grip, his fur bleeding into skin and human form. Neji staggered under Naruto’s sudden weight, his eyes wide with shock. “Tenten,” he protested, willing to believe his girlfriend but also noting the evidence in front of him. 

“Keep an eye out, will you,” Tenten responded, her eyes already focused back on Hinata. “This wasn’t really its intended use so it might throw a fit.” She glanced up from Hinata briefly to wrinkle her nose at Neji, “Also step back. Naruto might get a little.... Boom.”

Neji hastily stepped back and refocused his eyes, shifting his vision to see magic. There was the red chaos of Naruto’s own magic with oily black strands digging its roots all over it. There was also a strange golden light mixed with Hinata’s own lavender magic coiled around Naruto’s stomach. “Tenten...” he warned, watching the way the gold and purple began coiling its way around the black strands, spready slowly from Naruto’s center and drawn from the dagger buried in Naruto’s stomach. 

“Yeah,” Tenten agreed absentmindedly, her eyes a gleaming gold as she focused all her energy on Hinata. Her hands pressed against the open wound of the neck and to the Hinata’s magic center.

“Tenten...” Neji warned with a bit more emphasis as he watched the golden and purple coils seemingly peel the black out by the roots. The entire chaotic mass of magic was writing and vibrating; Neji was quite certain magic wasn’t quite supposed to operate like this. 

Tenten let out a quick breath and cracked her neck. “Okay, redirection, it’s fine,” she mumbled, her eyes flitting to the writing magic almost masking Naruto’s form to Hinata’s weakly pulsing form. “We do this all the time,” she added to herself, firmly blocking out the part of her that pointed out usually it was with supports and also the other two were typically cognizant and helping. 

The magic of the spell wrapped around the blade, Hinata’s intent, Naruto’s anger, and the recoil of a broken curse all hit her like a fucking tsunami and all she knew was black. 

-x-

When Tenten finally opened her eyes, she saw Neji pacing by her beside and, past him, Naruto and Hinata curled up in a strangely comfortable looking sofa. Groaning, she looked around her, noting that this was a fancy hospital room which led her to conclude that the Hyuugas had probably pulled strings. “Neji,” she croaked, hand flopping limply in the direction of her pacing boyfriend. 

“Tenten!” For a split second, there was pure relief and gentle joy on Neji’s face as he quickly grasped her hand. She gently squeezed back. Neji directed his gaze from the IV keeping her magic levels stable to the gaunt paleness of her face and scowled. “I’m going to kill you,” he said rather pleasantly, the hand in hers still gentle. 

“Tenten!” Hinata peeked over Neji’s shoulders then stepped out, resting her hand on Tenten’s shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re awake!”

Tenten’s eyes froze on the jagged scar carved into the side of Hinata’s neck. “Hinata,” she whispered, her gaze flitting up to those pale eyes and slight smile before falling, inevitably, back on the scar. “Hinata, I’m sorry.”

“For stabbing my boyfriend?” Hinata asked lightly, her smile almost teasing. “I’ll forgive it just this once due to the aftermath.” When Tenten’s stare remained shocked and slightly horrified, she sighed and gently redirected her gaze. “I’m fine, Tenten. Several blood replenishers and I won’t even remember this.”

“It was never supposed to hurt you,” Tenten breathed, her gaze confused. “It was yours. I made it so. It was never supposed to—”

“If I remember it also does as I say,” Hinata reminded gently. “I imagine the poor thing got a little confused.”

Tenten shook her head but allowed Hinata’s hesitant smile to coax out one of her own. “I’m still sorry.” 

“You can pay me back by focusing on your own recovery,” Hinata said gently, then she frowned slightly. “Although Naruto might demand a bit of a fight. He’s stubborn that way.”

Laughing, Tenten’s breathing soon became wheezing even as Neji firmly informed Hinata that if anyone else attempted to fight Tenten other than himself, they were not going to like the consequences. “Okay,” she finally said after Hinata’s firm rebuke about threats directed at Neji, “I’ll keep it in mind.” She blinked at them slowly when they both gave her a fond smile. “Who upped my dosage?” she complained, a yawn escaping her.

“Me,” Hinata said sweetly, utterly unrepentant. “You aren’t supposed to be laughing this hard so soon after waking. Go back to sleep, Tenten. We’ll still be here.”

“I’ll get you for this,” Tenten mumbled, her blinks becoming slower and longer. 

“Yes,” Hinata said, fond but not as embarrassingly fond as Neji. “I’m sure you will.”

The blackness this time was much more welcome. 

**Author's Note:**

> tw: Hinata sort of suicides in order to prevent Naruto from hurting her when feral sorry BUT SHE GETS BETTER I SWEAR


End file.
